Hello my friends 🖐,
and welcome back to the Monday #TechWatchbySeb ☕️. This week we will travel across the U.K 🇬🇧 and Norway 🇳🇴 and Sweeden 🇸🇪 after sharing insights on the leadership position that can be taken by Europe in the cleantech industry.
Last week, I read a very interesting article from the Financial Times “Europe’s chance to lead the green technology race”. And it started pretty aggressively saying that Europe doesn’t really count in the Tech market compared to the US or Asia. The author viewed European success stories, such as Spotify and SAP, as mere exceptions that prove the rule.
But soon after, it stated that Europe has some interesting ingredient to succeed, especially in cleantech, as there is a strong pool of engineering talent, and a clear political will to drive change.
It is very rare to see such alignment between different countries and politicians.
“What do cleantech companies do?
It can be defined as any process, product, or service that reduces negative environmental impacts through significant energy efficiency improvements, the sustainable use of resources, or environmental protection activities.
Support from European politics
Through the European Investment Bank and local governmental initiatives, there has been considerable public support and funding granted to the development and adoption of Cleantech solutions.
The Innovation Fund, led by the EU commission, aims to invest $10Bn over 10 years in Cleantech companies.
For more information regarding this scheme that was released last year, you can have a look at the official website.
KfW, the German public bank, is reported to be the world’s biggest clean energy investor, having covered 1 out of 9 loans granted in the sector globally, amounting to almost $28Bn. Here all the details in this article
Regarding the venture world, it is challenging to find exact numbers on fundraising, but herebelow are 3 of the most active investors in cleantech in Europe (source: Pitchbook):
Scottish Enterprise (27)
Enterprise Ireland (27)
Oost NL (16)
And the list of the 3 biggest funded cleantech companies in Europe:
VOI Technology🇸🇪: operates an electric scooter marketplace for urban commuters in Stockholm. More than 4 million users use Voi in their daily commute or to explore new cities (raised $ 257.9M)
Zola Electric🇳🇱: builds renewable energy solutions powered by the latest solar, battery and power electronics technology. ZOLA Electric’s solar systems can be purchased using PAYGo micro-finance leasing and mobile money payments (raised $ 239.1M)
Climeworks🇨🇭: captures CO2 from air through marketable carbon dioxide removal technology. Its plants capture CO2 with a filter, using mostly low-grade heat as an energy source. The pure CO2 gas is then retailed to customers in key markets, as well as commercial agriculture, food and beverage industries, the energy sector and the automotive industry. (raised $ 124.28M)
At Early Metrics, our research team has also done interesting analyses on particular areas of the Cleantech market. Indeed, mentioned earlier in the article Cleantech can be very wide, and we have tried to identify specific trends such as:
➡️ How agritech is enabling more sustainable plantation management
➡️ Key trends in sustainable finance
And more recently we have launched a new rating methodology to evaluate the environmental and social impact of a startup — Early Metrics ESG Rating
Now it’s time for the weekly selection 🧐
#TECHWATCHBYSEB — WEEKLY ISSUE #18
🥇 Deliveroo 🇬🇧 went public on the LSE
The British delivery company went public on the London Stock Exchange but the first days of trading weren’t at the level expected. This puts some pressure on European Stock Exchange to attract the expected upcoming IPOs such as Wise, Trustpilot, Klarna…
🥈Softbank acquired 40% of Autostore 🇳🇴 for $7.7BN
The warehouse automation firm AutoStore just announced a major funding round of $2.8 Bn for 40% of its equity with the very famous Japanese firm Softbank.
🥉Spotify 🇸🇪 acquired the US startup Betty Labs
The streaming company has announced the acquisition of the startup Betty Labs for an amount of around $ 50M. The startup is known also as a direct competitor to ClubHouse which has seen incredible traction recently.
BONUS, following my previous newsletter TechWatchbySeb #17 — “No Code for Europe”, the quoted company BRYTER 🇩🇪 just announced a $66M funding round 🥳
That’s it for this week, wishing you a great week ahead🖐
Stay safe ❤️